Nikon Monarch Dot Sight VSD 1x30 Details

Nikon Monarch Dot Sight VSD 1x30 Specifications

Manufacturer

Nikon

SKU

BRA11302c

Material

N/A

Dot Sight Type

Reflex sight

Window size

Field of view

Field of view

Field of view is an area you see when looking through the optical product. Although it primarily depends on the build of the eyepiece, it is hugely affected by magnification. If you look through two binoculars of the same model but with different magnification, you can see that the one with lower magnification factor will have a wider field of view. So when comparing binoculars, you must compare the ones with the same magnification. With riflescopes the field of view is being measured at 100 m, while with binoculars, spotting scopes and other optical products it's measured at 1000 m.

With binoculars a field of view with more than 140 m at 1000 m distance is considered a wide angle, while with riflescopes it is with a field of view over 38 m at 100 m. Wide angle is particularly useful in bird-watching.

It is also important to mention that the size and lens diameter of optical products are not indicators of their field of view - bigger housing doesn’t automatically mean wider field of view.

Field of view can be expressed in two values – degrees or meters.

Degrees:

One degree is 17.5 m at 1000 m / 1.75 m at 100 m.

If you divide the field of view given in meters by 17.5 you get the field of view in degrees.

Meters:

If you multiply degrees with 17.5 you get the field of view at 1000m.

Source: Lovec

Lens coating

Lens coating

Optical products have many lenses in their housing. With each lens about 5% of the light passing through is lost. This can be solved with an application of coatings on the glass surfaces. With years the technology of coatings changed. At first they used only one layer, where the reduction of the loss was to 2% per surface. Today they use multiple layers of coatings where there’s minimal loss of light - 0.1% per surface. The best binoculars have even 95% of the light transmitted to the eye, through all their lenses.

With increasing transmission of the light, the coating is also important as a protectant of the optical glass and to ensure the true color fidelity, so the colors when entering are the same when exiting binoculars/riflescope. Above all, coatings also increase the image quality because all the light bouncing around on the inside can cover up detail and blur colors.

Source: ZEISS

The process of applying coatings has to be precise, otherwise it can contribute to hazy and blurred image. They must be spread evenly and thinly to ensure the best quality. The better the coatings, the more expensive the optical product.

Lens coatings are as important as the quality of the lenses themselves. You can easily check whether your optical product has coatings – if you look at the reflection and it shows multiple colors such as purple, green or yellow the lenses are definitely coated. On the opposite, lenses with no coatings have a clear reflection without showing any colors.

There are many different ways of applying lens coatings:

Coated: where one or more glass surfaces are coated with one thin anti-reflective layer.

Fully coated: where all glass surfaces are coated in one thin anti-reflective layer.

Multicoated: where one or more glass surfaces are coated in multiple layers. Light transmission is more than 75%.

Fully multicoated: where all glass surfaces are coated in multiple layers. Light transmission is more than 85%.

Outer surface coating: coating on the outer glass surface which protects the lens from external dew (especially in the winter), partially from dirt and other impurities. They can have different names, depending on the manufacturer (LotuTec, Swarodur, AquaDura)

Source: ZEISS

Fully Multicoated

Reticle

Dot

Dot size

1 MOA, 10 MOA, 4 MOA, 6 MOA, 8 MOA

Adjustable intensity

N/A

Adjustment per click

Adjustment per click

Adjustment per click is, how many centimeters/millimeters will move on the target at 100 m when you make one click on the turrets for elevation or a point of impact windage on the rifle scope. Clicks are usually specified in MRAD (1 mrad is 10 cm / 100 m) or MOA (1 MOA is 2.9 cm / 100 m). Some manufacturers designate MRADs with acronym MIL.

Practically all newer rifle scopes have the possibility to adjust reticle left or right (windage) and up or down (elevation). This process is known as zeroing. The upper turret on the rifle scope is for elevation adjustment of the reticle and the side turret on the rifle scope is for windage adjustment of the reticle. Hunting rifle scopes have the mechanism of both turrets protected with caps that protect the turrets from water, damage or any other outside impacts. Turrets are in other words rotatable buttons which you can spin left or right.

Every single movement made with the turret produces a »click« sound. Usually, 1 click on European rifle scopes moves hit on a target for 1 cm at 100 m range (0.1 MRAD / MIL). On American, Japanese and Chinese scopes 1 click moves the hit on the target for ¼ MOA (minute of angle) which is 7 mm at 100 m range. On Benchrest rifle scopes, where corrections have to be very small, the clicks are either 1/8 MOA (3,5 mm / 100 m) or 0,05 MRAD (5 mm / 100 m).

28mm/100m - 1MOA

Elevation

Elevation

Elevation is how much up and down you can adjust reticle. For example, if you see in rifle scope specifications elevation is 3.5 m, this means that you can adjust reticle maximal 1.75 m up and maximal 1.75 m down for hits on your target at 100 m. Elevation range is usually specified in MRAD (1 mrad is 10 cm / 100 m) or MOA (1 MOA is 2.9 cm / 100 m). Some manufacturers designate MRADs with an acronym MIL.

Practically all newer rifle scopes have the possibility to adjust reticle left or right (windage) and up or down (elevation). This process is known as zeroing. Upper turret on rifle scope is for elevation adjustment of reticle and side turret on rifle scope is for windage adjustment of reticle. Hunter rifle scopes has the mechanism of both turrets protected with caps which protect turret from water, damage or any other outside impacts. Turrets are easily said a rotatable buttons which you can spin in left or right way.

Every single movement made with the turret produces a »click« sound. Usually 1 click on European rifle scopes moves hit on target for 1 cm at 100 m range (0.1 MRAD / MIL). On American, Japanese and Chinese scopes 1 click moves the hit on the target for ¼ MOA (minute of angle) which is 7 mm at 100 m range.

For long range shooting elevation of at least 2.6 m / 100 m (26 MRAD or 89 MOA) is needed.

Source: Revija Lovec

100 MAO

Windage

Windage

Windage is how much right and left you can adjust reticle. For example, if you see in rifle scope specifications windage is 1.5 m / 100 m, this means that you can adjust reticle maximal 0.75 m right and maximal 0.75 m left for hits on your target at 100 m. Windage range is usually specified in MRAD (1 mrad is 10 cm / 100 m) or MOA (1 MOA is 2.9 cm / 100 m). Some manufacturers designate MRADs with an acronym MIL.

With windage adjustment we can compensate wind drift of the bullet from straight trajectory. Wind drift is caused by the effect that a side wind has on a bullet.

Practically all newer rifle scopes have the possibility to adjust reticle left or right (windage) and up or down (elevation). This process is known as zeroing. Upper turret on rifle scope is for elevation adjustment of reticle and side turret on rifle scope is for windage adjustment of reticle. Hunter rifle scopes has the mechanism of both turrets protected with caps which protect turret from water, damage or any other outside impacts. Turrets are easily said a rotatable buttons which you can spin in left or right way.

Every single movement made with the turret produces a »click« sound. Usually 1 click on European rifle scopes moves hit on target for 1 cm at 100 m range (0.1 MRAD / MIL). On American, Japanese and Chinese scopes 1 click moves the hit on the target for ¼ MOA (minute of angle) which is 7 mm at 100 m range.

It is recommended that rifle scope has windage of at least 1.5 m / 100 m (15 MRAD or 50 MOA).

Source: Revija Lovec

No

Reticle illumination

Reticle illumination

Reticle illumination is the possibility to illuminate the rifle scope reticle with light. Some rifle scopes use reticle with illumination possibilities. There are two main types of reticle illumination on the market:

- illuminated point in the middle of the reticle,

- illumination option to light up the whole reticle.

For hunting, the reticle with central light point (dot) is more recommended. Rifle scopes that use illumination of the whole reticle are more recommended for tactical and sports use. The power of illumination light can be either day strong or visible only in the lowest light situations (in dark). For the driven hunts, IPSC or tactical CQB daytime strong illumination is more usable. Illumination option only visible in low light conditions is better for hunting in low light conditions or even in the dark. Rifle scopes that use as many different intensity levels as possible are better because they offer more possibilities to find a perfect view of the reticle in different lighting conditions.

The most advanced rifle scopes use optical fibers built in the middle of the reticle as a light dot. In high quality rifle scopes, these illuminated dots are of the smallest size. For example, if the illumination is set to OFF, you don`t see this illuminated dot at all and when you turn the illumination ON, the light dot is visible. High quality rifle scopes enable the user to fine tune illumination intensity. This way the reticle is always illuminated just right in accordance with the ambient light condition. Very dim in low light and extremely bright in the daytime. Newer rifle scopes have built in automatic turn off electronics that turns off illumination of the reticle when you don’t use your rifle scope for some time the illumination of reticle goes automatically to OFF. Such scopes have built in motion sensor to determine when the scope is not in use. This preserves battery life.

Reticle illumination option provides you a better accuracy at night and in low light situations. With non-illuminated reticles, you could have problems in low light situations, when you can see the target but not the reticle. The type of illumination for low light usage only is mostly meant for raised hide hunting.

Daytime bright illumination is the best option for driven hunting, IPSC and tactical shooting.

Source: Nikon

Yes

Day time usable illumination

Day time usable illumination

Daytime illumination of the rifle scope reticle serves a different purpose than twilight illumination, and in such rifle scopes, high intensity levels are a necessity. The illumination of the reticle is meant forrapid target acquisition, since a bright red dot is the best possible aiming point. Shooters’ eyes are instinctively drawn to a bright red dot in the center of the field of view. Such strong illumination is feasible only in rifle scopes with magnification lower than 1.5x or ideally 1.0x. Such wide-angle rifle scopes with a real 1.0x magnification and daytime bright illumination of the reticle can even be used with both eyes open, similar to reflex/red dot sights.

Rifle scopes with daytime illumination are the best choice for IPSC, CQB, tactical shooting and driven hunting in bright daylight.

Source: Zeiss

-

Illumination color

Red

Parallax setting

Parallax setting

Parallax can be adjustable or fixed and parallax setting tells you if parallax is fixed, on which distance.

Adjustable parallax setting allows you to line up your reticle with your target objective in a proper plane, what brings you a proper focus, better sight image and better accuracy.

Easy explanation about parallax meaning. When your rifle with rifle scope is fixed on a bench and you are looking through the rifle scope. Your reticle is perfectly in line with the center of the target. Now you move your head around und you see also the reticle moves a little bit in relation to the target. This is parallax error. It happens when the target is not perfectly focused. When you adjust the parallax, so that the target is in perfect focus, then there is no parallax error. You can move your eye from the optical axis and the reticle will still stay in line with the center.

Traditionally, rifle scopes had a fixed parallax set at 100 meters or 100 yards; however, with the advance of shooting sports, such approach was not adequate anymore. Scopes with fixed parallax offered best resolution only at one distance (100 meters/yards) at which the target was in focus. At all other distances, the picture was less sharp or even blurry. An even bigger problem with this type of scope was the fact that, when shooting at the target not at the same distance as the scope parallax setting, the shooter had to be very careful about his eye alignment with the optical axis. If the eye is moved away from the optical axis, the reticle on the target will move, which will worsen the accuracy. Since these errors are small, the fixed parallax option is still considered accurate enough for traditional hunting. For sport shooting, though, such small error leads to poor results. Parallax errors become more pronounced with magnifications higher than 12x, and that means the majority of scopes with magnification range under this value need no parallax adjustment.

With the ability of parallax adjustment, accuracy of the riflescope is greatly enhanced at all distances. The shooter, however, has to adjust the parallax setting before making the first shot. Such scopes usually have AO – Adjustable Objective or SF – Side focus acronym in their name.

Source: Revija Lovec

50 m

Waterproof

Waterproof

Waterproof feature is made to keep the optical products sealed and protected from water or dust. Such products are suitable for marine, hunting, hiking or in extreme humidity. Even if you’re not planning on using them in this kind of situations, it is a good feature to have in case of heavy rain or dust. Waterproof optical products are typically sealed with O-rings.

All optical products that are fogproof are also waterproof, because they have to be properly sealed to keep the dry gas inside. Yet not all waterproof products are fogproof as the air inside the barrels is not necessarily replaced with dry nitrogen or argon.

You should be careful not to confuse waterproof with weather-resistant as they’re designed to protect only against light rain and are not fully sealed.

Slightly better waterproofing of binoculars can also be ensured with an individual eye focusing mechanism, due to less moving parts than with the central focusing system.

Yes

Fogproof

Fogproof

Fogging in optical products can occur when you move them from the warm insides of your house to the cold outdoors. To prevent the formation of inside fogging they’re often filled with dry gas – either nitrogen or argon which contain no moisture.

To keep the gas intact on the inside, the optics have to be properly sealed, which is why all fogproof optical products are also waterproof.

It’s important to keep in mind that fogproof means that it’s to prevent fogging on the inside of the optics, not on the outside. If your outside surface of the lenses fogs up due to temperature differences or humidity just allow them to adjust back – do not wipe the condensation off as it can be damaging to the glass surface and its coatings.

Yes

Shockproof

Yes

Temperature range

Filled with

Filled with

Optical products are often filled with dry gas to prevent the condensation on the inside of the housing when exposing them to temperature extremes. If there is even a slight sign of air inside, there is a certain % of moisture present. Usually they’re filled with either argon or nitrogen gas, which have the same effect – to prevent the moisture and internal fogging without affecting the optical properties. In addition, these gases also prevent the formation of fungus which would destroy the optics. Internal dewing was the biggest problem in older binoculars when exposed to lower temperatures, because they weren’t watertight and contained air. Newer binoculars are therefore all airtight and filled with dry nitrogen or argon.

Nitrogen

Length

96 mm

Mount length

Mount length

Mount length is a length of rifle scope tube where ring mounts can be clamped on (see the picture below).

Mount lengths of the tube on rifle scopes are different due to the length of objective and ocular length and sizes. Wide angle type rifle scopes have longer mount length, due to the front side of the rifle scope has a tube till the end.